Author(s):

Abstract:

For
more than a century, careful readers of the Green
Bag have known that “[t]here is nothing sacred in a theory of law . . .
which has outlived its usefulness or which was radically wrong from the
beginning. . . . The question is What is the law and what is the true public
policy?” Professor Orin Kerr bravely, creatively, and eloquently answered that
question in his article, “A Theory of Law,” in the Autumn 2012 issue of the Green Bag. Uniquely among all theories
of law that I know of, Kerr’s answer to the fundamental question of law and
true public policy enables all scholars to answer that same question in their
own ways. The Green Bag is pleased to
be featuring his “A Theory of Law” in its first micro-symposium, and just as
pleased with the quality, quantity, and diversity of the responses to the call
for papers. Blessed with an abundance of good work but cursed by a shortage of
space, we were compelled to select a small set – representative and excellent –
of those essays to publish in the Green Bag or its sibling publication, the
Journal of Law. We regret that we cannot do full justice to the outpouring of
first-rate legal-theoretical commentary we received.